Sermon for 2003 January 12, 8.00 am Holy Communion, St Mary Magdalen, Sheet, published on www.trikeshed.com

Bible readings: Acts 19:1-7, Mark 1:4-11

I have to admit that with twelve years’ experience as a Reader I did not know that New Year’s Day was a special Christian festival – the feast of the Baptism of Christ. Well, while there is still a bit of a new year atmosphere, it’s appropriate that our gospel today is about baptism. In our epistle, we have Paul encountering these disciples (whatever that means) in Ephesus and asking them into what they were baptized. When they said "into John’s baptism" Paul had them baptized in the name of Jesus. And in our Gospel, we have the Baptist, John, baptizing people and then famously baptizing Jesus himself.

Now these readings about baptism raise many questions, especially for the ecclesiastically minded but perhaps for everybody. Just who were these dodgy disciples who had never heard of the Holy Spirit? Were they disciples of John the Baptist, or disciples of Jesus? Why were they, uniquely in the whole Bible, baptized twice? Is that a valid thing to do? What actually happened when they were baptized in the name of Jesus? And what about this laying on of hands and the receiving of the Holy Spirit? Is that a model for baptism followed by confirmation? And what was this baptism of John? Why did Jesus get baptized? What happens when we are baptized? Is it right to allow babies to be baptized or should it be a decision for older children and adults? Is it better to be baptized by total immersion? Does it really matter if you are baptized or not?

Well, this isn’t the time for a complete theological treatise, but let’s just delight in this subject for a few minutes. Baptism is something quite exciting and yes, it does matter, though perhaps not in the way that some have thought over the years – I’ll come back to that in a minute. Baptism is not unique to the New Testament. The Essenes, the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls, practised something like baptism although it seems to have been a repeated ceremonial washing. In mainstream Judaism it was quite normal for converts to be baptised. And to fast-forward 2,000 years, baptism actually remains very popular in our corner of the church – about 20% of children born in 2000 were baptised as Anglicans, which is massively more than even the most generous figures for Anglican church attendance which is something like 4% of the population. And the number of non-infant baptisms is actually going up. This makes baptism a wonderful opportunity for outreach into the wider community.

So what actually happens when we are baptized? In one sense, nothing! This might be quite a shocking thing to say, but it’s true in the sense that baptism is not some kind of magic incantation. It does not make God love us more or give us a ticket to heaven. There is powerful symbolism of our sins being washed away, but if it was the actual mechanism by which we were made clean then we would need a daily bath! Baptism and confirmation are strongly linked to receiving the Holy Spirit, but does that mean we get the Holy Spirit by being baptized? No – it’s interesting that in the book of Acts there are examples of people receiving the power of the Spirit well before, during and after being baptized.

So baptism isn’t a magic formula but it is something special and important. That’s why Paul was so keen to find out what kind of baptism those mystery disciples had undergone, and why he was so keen that they should be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. It’s why it was the central ministry of John, the forerunner of Jesus. And it’s why – and this is quite strange in a way – it’s why Jesus himself consented to be baptized. It is strange because baptism is all about our sins being washed away. (That is such a powerful living picture. I have stood in the river Jordan and assisted in a baptism, and apart from the odd feeling of having little fish nibbling at your legs, it is a very moving experience as the person is lowered into the water and then triumphantly raised again. Even in the Church of England, with our sprinkling of babies’ heads, we can read this in the introduction to the baptism service in Common Worship. Our ‘drowning’ in the water of baptism, where we believe we die to sin and are raised to new life, unites us to Christ’s dying and rising, a picture that can be brought home vividly by the way baptism is administered. ) But Jesus himself, surely he did not need this? Well, here’s the start of an explanation: could it be that baptism is so much more than a ceremonial washing? There are at least three more aspects to baptism that meant it was very important that Jesus was baptized.

The first is that it was public. Mark tells us that all the country of Judea, and all the people of Jerusalem, went to John to be baptized. And Jesus also went in those days and was baptized. What happened when he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit decending like a dove, and when he heard the voice of God announcing This is my only or beloved Son, was evidently a public event. And so it is for us. My two children were both baptized on Easter Sunday, but in contrasting services, one a quiet service at noon, the other during the main Easter communion. But the idea of a private baptism is in my view an oxymoron, like "popular tax" or "Ashes to England". This is why we have the welcome in a service soon after a child is baptized, to make sure that as wide a community of the church as possible is able to share in the promises that are made,

The second is summed up in that word community. When Jesus was baptized he not only did it in public but in doing so identified himself with the thousands of ordinary people who were coming to be baptized. The prophet said that he was numbered with the transgressors. For us it is the same, in baptism we allow ourselves to be counted with this bunch of failures known as the Church. Or to put it more positively, we become members of a community of faith. We know that’s not a rigid definition, that’s up to God, but it means something very tangible, something in the best sense to be proud of. And with all the diversity and apparent disunity of the Church, baptism stands out as something the vast majority of all Christians share and recognize.

The third is that it is an act of dedication. For Jesus it was the start of his public ministry, notwithstanding his period in the wilderness. For us it symbolises the start of a journey. It is once and for all in the same way that to turn to Christ is once and for all. I think it’s quite important that we’re not normally allowed to be baptized twice. Our baptism doesn’t need to be "topped up". Again, from the Common Worship introduction: There may be a lighted candle, a picture of the light of Christ conquering the darkness of evil. Everyone who is baptized walks in that light for the rest of their lives. And as we can see in the service, it’s an act of dedication not just for the child or adult being baptized but also for their sponsors or godparents and for the whole congregation.

We can sum up these aspects of baptism by remembering that this wonderful sacrament is not something that God needs from us, but is a gift from God to us. What happens at that font is a public dedication to Christ as a member of his church. I’m glad Jesus our Saviour consented to be baptized. As those baptized (or possibly considering it) we’re obviously in good company!

© Mike Knee, 2003

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